


Chasing Baby SEALs

by hufflepirate



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Caretaking, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-02 23:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8687038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepirate/pseuds/hufflepirate
Summary: When Steve gets caught in an explosion at an unregistered witch's secret lair, he is deaged into a 5-year-old.  Danny takes the lead on looking after him.  Like everything else he's ever been involved in with Steve, it's a bit of a roller-coaster ride.





	

Danny felt the explosion in the basement almost before he heard it, and then he was running, on instinct, toward the stairs, with Kono close behind him. "Steve!"

The smoke pouring up the stairs was a deep but vibrant purple, which Danny didn't fully register until Chin was pulling him back out of the smoke cloud by the back of the vest. "Wait! We don't know what that did." 

Danny shrugged out of Chin's grip, "Yeah, but we know Steve was down there!"

"I'm gonna go get gas masks!" Kono exclaimed, already running away.  Danny knew he should wait - you never knew what could happen with magic, but then a soft coughing sound from the basement sent a wave of fear down his spine, and this time Chin wasn't fast enough to stop him.

"Steve!" he shouted, bursting through the doorway and onto the stairs and pulling the collar of his shirt up over his mouth as he went, "Steve, are you hurt?"

Neither the cough, nor the voice that said "I'm ok! I'm ok!" sounded like Steve, but it wasn't until Danny cleared the smoke cloud and burst out onto the basement floor that he figured out why.

At the foot of the stairs, a kid of about five was clambering to his feet, peering perplexedly up at Danny. "Why are you big?"

Danny's head was spinning, like his eyes and ears and brain couldn't all get on the same page. "I'm a policeman," he said, like he had a hundred times before, "It's gonna be ok."

The boy's nose wrinkled, "I _know_ that, Danny. What's the matter with you?"

Danny's brain was finally catching up. He took in the tiny bulletproof vest, the polo shirt with the rumpled collar, the serious glint in the kid's eye, and the cargo pants and combat boots.  "Dammit!" he exclaimed, "What's the matter with _me_? What's the matter with _you_ , Steve? You look, like, 5. You can't just go charging into witches' lairs and blowing things up!"

"I didn't _know_ she was a witch!" Steve answered, clearly upset, "And you shouldn't say bad words!"

Danny wanted to say a few more bad words, as a couple more of the pieces clicked into place. Instead, he took a deep breath and knelt down to look Steve in the eye.

 "I know, Steve, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I know you didn't know." And that was one more thing to be angry about, except now that he could see Steve's face better, he could tell his newly-tiny partner was afraid and trying not to show it, so he needed to keep his anger in check. "When we get her, we'll make sure she gets an extra charge for practicing witchcraft without a license, ok? Right now, we gotta get you checked out."

Steve nodded, and Danny almost reached over to pick him up, then thought better of it. He straightened up, then offered Steve a hand, just in case. When Steve actually took it, wrapping his little fingers around Danny's hand, Danny knew he wasn't fully himself. But if he remembered who he was and where they were, he wasn't completely _not_ himself, either. Danny wasn't sure what that meant.

They climbed the stairs together, Steve's short legs working harder than Danny's, for once, and Danny tried not to seethe too much over this whole magic thing. He _hated_ magic. He'd _always_ hated magic, and this wasn't exactly turning him around on the subject.

Chin and Kono came in through the door just before he and Steve reached it, both wearing gas masks, and Steve stopped dead in his tracks on the stairs, squeezing Danny's hand hard. Danny looked down to see Steve staring at them, wide-eyed. "It's ok, Steve," he said gently, squeezing Steve's hand back, "It's just Chin and Kono."

"Steve?" Kono sounded as confused as Danny had felt.

"Oh," Steve said, pushing his chin up and squaring his jaw, "I knew that!" He started climbing again, and the cousins stepped backward into the hallway to get back out of the smoke.

Steve's grip on Danny's hand didn't fully relax again until they had the masks off.

"Is there anyone else down there?" Chin asked, and Danny suddenly realized he hadn't checked. He'd been too caught up trying to make sense of Steve. 

"No, just me," Steve answered for him, "The bad lady went out the window before everything exploded."

Chin nodded at him.

"I'll go see if I can pick up her tracks from the basement window," Kono offered, "If she's on foot, she can't have gone far, but you never know with witches."

"Have we got paramedics coming?" Danny asked.

Chin shook his head. "Didn't think we needed to call them. You better take him to the hospital. Or a registered witch."

Danny shuddered. Even so-called 'good witches' gave him the heebie-jeebies. "Hospital. Definitely hospital. You good to clear the rest of the house without us?"

"Of course, brother. You just take care of Steve. We'll catch up with you once we're done here."

Steve had been watching the conversation, head moving back and forth to look at them as they spoke. "I have to go to the hospital?" he asked, a little bit of fear creeping into his voice at the end of the question.

Chin patted him on the head, and Steve tried to swat his hand away with the hand that wasn't holding Danny's. "It's just a precaution, buddy. You seem fine. We just gotta be sure."

Steve nodded, with a grudging, "ok," and Danny, for the second time, had to resist the urge to pick him up.

"Come on," he said, instead, leading Steve gently toward the front door, "Let's get this little check-up over with, huh? Then we can go get some shave ice on the way back to the office, ok?"

Steve smiled brightly, looking suddenly like a real kid in a way that made Danny feel like he'd been slugged in the gut, and answered, "I want blue!"

Danny forced himself to laugh, so Steve wouldn't know how much he was suddenly freaking out on the inside. "Check-up first, kiddo, come on."

 

*****

 

By the time they got to the desk at the ER, Danny had given up on not carrying Steve. Luckily (or maybe unluckily, given that he was _supposed_ to be a fully grown tough-guy Navy SEAL right now), Steve didn't seem to mind.

"Hi," Danny said to the lady at the front desk, "Detective Danny Williams. I called ahead. This is Steve."

Steve's face was still red from having cried, and he refused to look at the lady behind the desk, keeping his face buried in Danny's shoulder instead.

"And what's wrong with Steve today?" she asked, like she had no idea who he was. Danny forced himself to stay calm.

"Well, like I said on the _phone_ , he ran afoul of some magic on a case, and we're not sure exactly what's happened to him. He also threw up about 15 minutes ago in the back of my car, but that might just be motion sickness."

Steve made a soft, upset noise against Danny's shoulder, and Danny reached up to rub his back. He wanted to be mad that Steve had puked in his car, especially because he'd done it after whining when he wasn't allowed to drive or sit in the front seat, but the fact that Steve had started crying like the world was ending as soon as he was done throwing up, hard enough that Danny had to comfort him before he could pull the car over and clean up the mess, had stopped the anger from really setting in. It was hard to be mad at someone who was so tiny and miserable.

"Ok," the woman said, "I'll get him entered in the system, and then I'll give you some paperwork to fill out. What's his date of birth?"

"March 10, 1976."

The woman raised an eyebrow.

"Look," Danny said, "I _know_. But like I said, he ran afoul of some _magic_ earlier, so I'm gonna need you to just get him in to see the doctor, ok?" 

"Sir, I am trying to help you here. We'll get him in as soon as we can." She entered something into the computer, then grabbed three different forms out of a drawer beside her and handed them over. Danny took them, with his shallowest and fakest smile, and then took a seat in the waiting area. Steve gradually let go of his grip around Danny's neck, but didn't move to sit in the chair next to him. Danny rearranged them both so that he could fill out the paperwork with Steve sitting in his lap.

"You're probably gonna need to help me out with some of this, buddy," he said. Steve nodded seriously, then ruined the effect by scrubbing at his eyes, to clear the rest of the tears from earlier.

The first form wasn't too bad. Steve's wallet had shrunk along with his clothes, and the writing on his tiny insurance card was hard to read, but nothing Danny couldn't handle with the help of a smartphone camera and a zoom function.

He wrote down his own information as Steve's emergency contact, half surprised that Steve had officially picked him for that, or perhaps just surprised that he'd never _realized_ Steve had picked him. Every time Steve had wound up in the hospital lately, Danny had been there for the event that put him there. They'd never had to call him, because he'd always been there already. 

The second form was worse. Steve mostly remembered his medical history, but not entirely, and there was only so much Danny could remember from a hundred random conversations about other things.

The third form was impossible. Danny knew very little about magic, and Steve had been too overwhelmed by suddenly being a child again to observe much of use about the witch's lair, and Danny hadn't been much better on that front, and halfway through the questions, Steve started welling up like he might cry again, and Danny gave up.

"Hey," he said, hugging Steve tighter for a moment, "Hey, Steve, babe, it's ok. It's not you. It's these stupid questions. _'What kind of magic was it_?' How the heck should _we_ know? It's not like we're the ones who did it!"

Steve nodded, sniffling lightly. "I'm trying to remember, Danny, I promise."

"I know you are. I know. But we're just gonna leave the rest of it blank, ok? We're gonna leave it blank and we're gonna take a nice little walk back to the desk to turn these in, and then we're gonna wait for the doctor, alright?"

Steve nodded again, and then clambered down off of Danny's lap. They returned the paperwork, Danny kept his cool as much as he could as the lady pressed him about all the questions he'd left unanswered, and they made it back to their seats without any major meltdowns from either of them, which felt like success, for the moment. Steve climbed back into Danny's lap on his own, this time, and Danny let him, wrapping his arms around the little boy who felt both so like and so unlike Grace had at that age.

They sat silently for a few minutes, Danny resting his cheek against Steve's head, and then Steve looked up at him, eyes still very serious for a child. "I'm sorry I threw up in your car," he said.  

The Steve who had thrown up in his car and then cried about it was definitely the 5-year-old, not his own Steve.  Danny wasn't sure which one he was talking to now.  "It's ok, buddy," he answered tentatively, "It's not your fault. It's probably the spell messing with you, too. I bet you ate breakfast like you had a grownup stomach, not a kid stomach."

"I'm sorry I cried about it," Steve answered, looking down and away again.

"Hey," Danny said, turning Steve's chin up gently, "Don't apologize for that, ok? Everybody cries sometimes, especially when they don't feel good. When I throw up, I want to cry, too. And you had a really stressful day."

Steve looked thoughtful. "No," he finally said, "I don't like crying."

Danny snorted, "I don't like it either, Steve. I'm just saying, it's not something to apologize for, ok? You're allowed to cry, if you have to."

Steve wrinkled his nose again, an expression that was quickly becoming familiar, and answered, "Ok, Danno."  It wasn't terribly convincing.

At the sound of his nickname, something fluttered in Danny's chest that he wasn't sure he knew what to do with, so he just squeezed Steve tight for a second and they settled into silence together until one of the nurses called Steve's name.

Steve grabbed ahold of Danny's neck before he could get up, so Danny pulled him closer as he got up to follow the nurse, picking him up to carry him.

"I'm sorry, Mr. McGarrett," the nurse said, "But your son will need to wait in the waiting room. The nurse at the desk will keep an eye on him."

"No, but I'm not-" Steve giggled in his arms as Danny spluttered out the words, " _This_ is Mr. McGarrett. _I'm_ his emergency contact. Danny Williams. I'm on the paperwork."

"Ok, but it says here that his birthdate is-"

"I _know_ what it says. It was _magic_."

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I don't have that form here. What kind of magic was it?"

Steve giggled again as Danny growled softly. "We don't _know_ , which is why we're _here -_ look, can you just take us back there?"

"Of course. Let me just grab you an extra form on the way back. It should help the doctor know what to look for."

Danny sighed, but he couldn't stay upset for long with Steve affectionately nudging him in the side of the head like that was a normal human way of comforting other people. What a mess.

 

*****

 

As they drove away from the hospital, with the back windows open for Steve this time, Danny called Chin and Kono and put them on speakerphone.

Kono answered the phone with a question, "How is he?"

"The doctor says he seems fine. None of the tests came back with anything to worry about. He thinks the spell's gonna wear off on its own, but he's not sure when, or what exactly that's gonna look like. He says we should take Steve to the doctor again when he's back to his old self, or in a week if he doesn't change back on his own. I said that seemed like a long time, but he says with big explosions like that, it really could be as long as a week."

"And how's he taking it?" Chin asked.

"Steve, how are you feeling?" Danny asked.

"Shave ice time!"  Steve had been calm and serious when they were in with the doctor, but now he just seemed 5 again.  It was like he couldn't hold on to his grownup self for too long before the kid came busting out again.  Danny wasn't sure how to feel about that.

On the other end of the line, one of the cousins made a vague, fond noise. "Yeah, I think he's fine," Danny answered them. "But we're not eating before we get back in the car again," he added pointedly, "So we'll have to take our shave ice to the office."

"I want grape!" Kono announced.

Danny rolled his eyes.

"Cherry for me, Danny," Chin said, "Thanks."

"That's not - you know what, fine. Fine. But you guys are gonna owe me."

"Oh, sure, Danny. Sure." Danny rolled his eyes at both of them and ended the call.

"You still want blue?" he asked Steve.

"Yeah."

"Me too."

 

*****

 

Danny didn't fully realize how quickly he'd gotten used to Steve being a kid, as patchy as the feeling of it had been, until they were all sitting around the table at 5-0 eating their shave ice and the others couldn't stop staring. Steve had carried his and Kono's carefully inside and was sitting in his own chair, now, kneeling on the seat and sitting on his heels so that he could reach better. Chin and Kono were watching like they couldn't believe their eyes.

"Here, Steve," Kono said, reaching forward across the table with a napkin, "You've got syrup on your arm."

Steve leaned backward, dodging her, and strained awkwardly, trying to lick his elbow. "I got it!"

"Whoa, buddy," Chin added, "You're gonna - too late." Steve's spoon dripped onto the shoulder of his shirt, where he actually _could_ reach to lick it off.

"It's ok," Danny said, "He already threw up on his vest, so we're gonna end up having to clean stuff anyway." He ignored Steve's sudden and murderous glare, keeping eye contact with Chin instead. "That's in my trunk, by the way. Still kid-sized. Because everybody needs a kid-sized tac vest."

Steve scowled. "I _might_ need it!" 

"No, you won't," Danny answered, turning toward his tiny partner this time, "You're not going out like this."

"Am so! If we find the bad lady!"

"Ok, the fact that you're calling her 'the bad lady' is _exactly_ why you don't get to go."

"The _suspect_!" Steve half-howled.

"Still no dice, partner. You are staying _right here_ where we can look after you until that spell wears off."

Danny hadn't known a kid _could_ look as intimidating as Steve did right now, standing slowly in his chair as his glare intensified. He leaned forward onto the table, putting his hands right in front of Danny and dragging the middle of his shirt straight through his shave ice. "Wanna bet?"

Kono made a strangled sound as she tried not to laugh, and the tension faded. Danny leaned forward, patting Steve on the head. "Nope. I don't make bets against children. You, my friend, are staying put."

Steve pulled away from Danny with a yelp, swatting his arm over his head as if to discourage further head pats, then plopped back down into his chair, on his butt this time.  Then he looked down at his stomach with a scowl, like he'd just noticed he'd gotten it dirty.

"You ok, kiddo?" Chin asked.

Steve glared at him for a moment, like he was ready to pick another fight, then collapsed into a petulant slouch instead, reaching forward to pull his shave ice off the table and take a bite out of the top.  "Shut up!"

Steve sulked through the rest of his shave ice, refusing to meet anyone's eyes, answer questions aimed at him, or use a spoon.  When Chin grabbed an extra napkin, like he was about to suggest Steve clean himself up a little, Danny grabbed his arm and shook his head no. They left him alone, to smear sugar all over his face and dribble melted ice down his chest in peace. Danny was patient. He could wait it out.

"Hey, Steve," Danny finally said, "The rest of us are gonna go look at some of the evidence from the house on Chin's computer. Make sure that goes in the trash when you're done." Chin and Kono raised eyebrows at Danny, but followed along.

Ten minutes later, Steve stomped unceremoniously in through the door of Chin's office, tugged at Danny's shirttail, and announced, "Danny, I'm cold.  I can't reach the paper towels."

Danny winked at Chin and Kono while Steve refused to look him in the eye, then leaned down to talk to Steve. "Ok, well, why don't you let me help you with that? Once we get all the sticky stuff off you, I've got a spare undershirt in my desk you can wear instead."

Steve looked upset for a minute, like he wasn't sure he wanted to take the help, but then he wrinkled his nose and said "Fine." He stalked out toward the bathroom, not waiting to take Danny's hand.

In the bathroom, Steve reluctantly let Danny lift him up to sit on the counter next to the sink, then washed his arms while Danny rinsed out the syrup-coated shirt, giving the boy a little bit of space. Danny draped the damp but marginally cleaner shirt over the back of the stall door behind them to dry, then turned back to his partner. "You need any help?"

"No," Steve said stubbornly, still halfway pouting.

"You sure? It looks like you got a little blue in your hair."

Steve twisted around to look in the mirror. "Where?"

"You probably can't see it. I think we're gonna have to dunk your head all the way into the sink under the water. How'd you even get it back there?"

"I dunno. I'm kind of messy. Dad always yells at me for it."

Danny stepped forward suddenly, just stopping himself from laying a hand on Steve's shoulder again. "No problem," he said, putting his hands up instead, "Kids are messy. I get that. Kids are supposed to be messy sometimes."

The look of utter disdain Steve turned on him would have looked more appropriate on an adult's face than a child's, and Danny felt suddenly uncomfortable.

"You know what, McGarrett, forget it. Get your head under the sink so I can wash the syrup out of it."

Steve's facial expression shifted, like he was trying to get a new read on Danny. After a moment of staing, eyes narrowed, Steve made a decision. "Only if you don't tell. You told how I threw up."

"Ok," Danny said with a sigh, "I won't tell. Scout's honor."

Steve snorted. "Yeah, like you were ever a scout."

"Haha. Very funny. Head in the sink, Steve."

This time Steve followed the order, letting Danny adjust the temperature of the water and then run his fingers through the little short curls at the back of Steve's head until his hair seemed mostly non-sticky and brown instead of blue.  He even let Danny dry his hair when they were done, while he toweled off his arms and torso.

Danny took it as a sign that they were friends again. Or whatever this was where his friend was suddenly also a kid he had to look after.

Danny helped Steve into his spare undershirt, a white tee that fell nearly to Steve's knees and had sleeves that hit him in the inside of the elbows, and all of a sudden Steve was running off like a little combat-booted ray of sunshine, like nothing had happened at all, and Danny wondered if that was just what Steve had been _like_ when he was little, or if it was something to do with the magic, again, with Steve not being able to hold on to his adult convictions.

Danny grabbed the kid-sized polo shirt off the top of the stall door and carried it to his office, where he could drape it over the arm of his couch instead, feeling pensive. It was good to have Steve happy again, but not as good as it was gonna be to have Steve be Steve again - or to get the witch who'd done this.

 

*****

 

Kid Steve turned out to be pretty good at entertaining himself, which was a bit of a double-edged sword. He found a football on one of Chin's shelves and ran around the office with it, throwing it up in the air and then dashing forward to catch it, or to pick it up and try again if he didn't make it. 

The constant thudding, alternating between the smaller thuds of his booted feet and the larger thuds of his whole body hitting the floor when he had to make a diving catch, was a big distraction, but he was technically leaving them alone to work on the case, which wasn't so bad.  Chin and Kono seemed more nervous about it all than Danny was, ducking out into the main rooms every few minutes to check on him, while Danny just listened so that he could come running if he heard an 'oops,' a 'whoops,' or an 'ouch.'  He wasn't sure he'd be so cavalier if it were Gracie, but then, how much trouble could Steve really get into, if he still vaguely remembered what it was like to be an adult?

It wasn't until it got quiet that Danny got nervous, paternal instincts sending a warning shiver down his spine.  His heart skipped a beat as he realized that after more than an hour of constant thumping, he hadn't heard any noise at all for at least 4 and a half minutes, and that was _definitely_ enough time for Steve to have gotten himself into trouble.

He took off at a run, startling the others.

"What?" Chin asked.

Danny didn't have time to stop, but shouted, "Too quiet!" over his shoulder.

He was right. He burst into the central part of the office just as Steve was reaching out from the exposed pipe he'd shimmied up to try to climb onto one of the open air ducts Danny was pretty sure was just hanging out there for aesthetic purposes. Steve didn't notice him, grabbing for the edge of the duct and then holding tighter to the pipe for a moment when his hand slipped.

When he tried again, Steve managed to get a good enough grip on the duct to let go of the pipe entirely, and that was when he slipped again and started falling.

"Shit!" Danny shouted, running to catch Steve before he landed on the hard floor. The five-year-old crashed into him harder than he'd expected, and he hadn't really managed to stop, and the next thing Danny knew, his feet were slipping out from under him, and he was lying on the floor on his back, with Steve sitting on his stomach. 

He took a long, painful breath in, to replace the one Steve had driven out of him when they landed, then let it out and breathed in again, trying to calm down. After the second breath, he managed to sit up a little, resting on his elbows while Steve leaned backward against his thighs, like he needed a breather, too.

"What kind of crazy Dad sense was that?" Kono joked, "I'm impressed."

"What the hell, Steve?" Danny managed.

"You said the h-word," Steve observed soberly.

"Yes, Steven, I did. I think, in this case, I'm allowed." Danny kept his voice calm and even. He didn't want to freak Steve out. The boy looked down and away anyway.

"'M sorry."

"What were you thinking?"

"I thought if I could get on the duct I could get in the ceiling and go see what your evidence was. I thought maybe I could help." 

"Help." Danny tipped his head back, laying it on the floor again, "Kid's the size of Kamekona's big bags of ice, and he wants to help." He had no idea what to do with that. He had no idea what to _say_ to that. He wasn't even sure who he was _talking_ to, because everything about this both did and didn't say 'Steve' to him.  He looked up at Kono and Chin for help.

"You know what, Steve -" Kono said, stepping forward and reaching a hand out to help Steve up, "I bet you _can_ help if you can tell me what you remember. I know you told Danny some stuff at the hospital, but he didn't write it down. If we could get it all on paper, that would be a big help."

Steve's little skeptical nose wrinkle was back again, but he let Kono help him up. The treat-him-like-a-kid approach was working.  Danny filed that away, for later.  "Really?" the boy asked.

"Sure. We don't know what details are helpful right now, but if we write 'em all down, they'll be there when we need them. We can't be sure how long you'll remember with all the magic messing with you."

The nose wrinkle stayed, but Steve agreed anyway, "Ok."  He even took Kono's hand as she led him back to her office.

Chin hauled Danny to his feet as soon as they were gone.

"He's gonna be the death of me," Danny announced, feeling tenderly at the places where he'd landed on his back. 

"We'll keep a better eye on him next time, Danny," Chin offered, "Now that we know he's, uh, more 5 than we thought." 

Danny had moved on to checking his stomach for bruises where Steve had landed. "It's not that. My life flashed before my eyes for a minute there - or really,  _his_ life flashed before my eyes. And you know what I saw? I've been shot. You've been shot. Kono's been shot. He's been shot. And that's not even counting all the bombs and hand grenades and leaps off tall buildings and reckless driving and that? That was with an _adult_. This kid climbs pipes for no reason. This building is not kid-proof. He's gonna kill me."

"He's not gonna kill you. We're gonna keep an eye on him. Don't worry. You won't need your Dad powers again."

"Look, Chin, not to quote that tiny asshole in there, but - wanna bet?"

Chin laughed, "Nah, I'm not taking that one. But we'll make sure someone's got eyes on him from now on."

 

*****

 

For the rest of the day, someone always had eyes on Steve.  Not that they needed to, as much.  Pushing himself to remember everything for Kono tired him out faster and better than even the football had, backing up Danny's theory that he couldn't hold onto the parts of him that were still a grownup for very long.  When most of his sugar rush wore off all at once a little after Kono was done with him, Steve crashed completely.

He was even kind of cute, drooling on the couch in his khaki cargos and combat boots and oversized t-shirt.

Cute enough that at 5:00, it almost didn't feel like a terrible idea taking Steve home with him.

"Are you sure, Danny?" Chin asked, "I'm sure we can-"

"Of course I'm sure. I haven't got Gracie for another couple of days. He can sleep in her room. It'll be fine. I've already got chicken nuggets and everything."

"Ok, well call us if you need anything," Kono offered, "We'll be working down leads for a little while longer anyway."

Danny nodded. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Let me know if you turn anything up."

Steve woke up when Danny scooped him up to carry him to the car, looking blearily at Danny as his eyes managed to focus on Danny's face, "Dad?"

"No, babe, it's Danno."

"Oh," Steve breathed, burying his face in Danny's shoulder to go back to sleep, "Ok."

 

*****

 

The night didn't go badly - Danny woke Steve up to eat dinner, argued him into a bath and a pair of Grace's pajamas, and then let him go to sleep again, and the kid was so wiped out from the day they'd had that none of it had been particularly difficult.

By the time he stumbled into work the next morning, trailing after Steve with the boy's boots in his hands, he felt like he'd done a full day's work.

"How was he?" Chin asked politely, watching as Steve charged off to find Kono.

"Impossible."

"Really? How so?"

"He woke me up at 4:00 this morning, Chin. _4:00_."  Danny shuddered. "And he wasn't even asking me about breakfast or anything. He was just getting it. He broke the cabinet with the bowls in it. The whole cabinet. Climbed onto the counter and leaned on it to reach up, and the whole thing comes off the wall. Big crashing noise, everything broken, and then I get into the kitchen, right, and he's trying to pick up all the little pieces and I'm sure he's gonna cut himself, but he doesn't, ok, because I stop him, but _I_ do-"

He held up his right hand, which was bandaged messily around the middle with gauze, "And this little - little - baby SEAL says it's fine, he'll just bandage me up, no big deal, and he grabs my hand and starts pulling little bits of ceramic out of it, and there's blood all over, and he's just dropping the little bloody sharp pieces back on the floor, and I'm sure he's gonna step on them in his bare feet, and it's only when he's actually got my stupid hand wrapped that he realizes his motor skills are back at 5-year-old level and he can't get the tape to stick to anything but itself."

"I'm sorry, Danny, that's-"

"No, I'm not finished! I'm not finished, ok, the tape keeps sticking to itself, right, so I reach over to take it from him and then all of a sudden it's like the end of the world, and he's freaking out and I'm freaking out, because he's been all Steve McGarrett Navy SEAL calm and now he's freaking out, and he starts shaking and I think maybe he's gonna cry, so I gotta calm him down, so I'm like look, look, kid, it's fine, see, I can tape it up myself, I taped it up myself, look, it's fine, and then he _does_ start crying and I'm like 'what the hell,' but I can't _say_ that, because then he'll just say 'You used the h-word' all shocked, and so I'm just like, 'it's ok Steve, just tell me what's wrong'"

Chin was nodding along, but didn't seem to really understand the gravity of the story, so Danny gestured a little more widely to get the importance of it all across better.

"So Steve, right, Steve McGarrett, _our_ Steve, just after he's let go of the SEAL thing and gone back to being five again, he looks up at me with those big dumb blue eyes and he asks 'Are you gonna hit me?' and I'm like what the _hell_ , but then I remember I _did_ hit him, once, that first time we met, and I think he saw it on my face when I remembered, because all of a sudden he's _really_ crying, so I'm like, no, Steve, of course not, hey, listen, of course not, I would never hit you, but he's still crying so I gotta hug him and when I move to hug him, I end up with glass shards in my knee, 'cause I'm not wearing any pants, and I'm trying not to cuss, and it's my bad knee, so it's even harder, and of course he's Steve friggin' McGarrett, so he notices that, too, and he can't stop crying-"

Chin cut him off, reaching out to grab his upper arm, "Danny-"

Danny took a deep breath, coming back to himself as he breathed it back out. It had weirded him out.  This whole thing was weirding him out, and it weirded him out the most when Steve switched from being not-really-5 to definitely-really-5, and he did _not like magic_.  "Yeah, right," he said, trying to wrap the story up for Chin.  "Yeah, anyway, I calmed him down, and it was fine. It was fine, and he calmed down and I thought hey, this is alright, rough start to the day but we'll just get out of the apartment and get some breakfast and it'll be fine."

Chin nodded, "Good."

"No," Danny said, shaking his head, " _Not_ good. 'Cause see, that was the part where he was still _kind of_ acting like himself, but every time he does that, he ends up even more 5 for a while after it, so I got my knee bandaged up and I got both of us dressed, and we went to McDonalds, and it turns out that kid is a _menace_."

He could feel himself ramping up again, but he couldn't help it - he couldn't stop himself. "The second we hit the parking lot, he's halfway out of the car and to the playplace, and I gotta drag him out of it to find out what he even eats, and then I take my eyes off him for two seconds in line and he's back over there again, in the ball pit in his shoes even though he's not supposed to be wearing shoes, and I gotta drag him out again as soon as we got food, and he can't sit still to eat it, so I bribe him by telling him he can go back to the playplace if he finishes his breakfast, so he eats so fast I think he's gonna make himself puke and he's running off and I yell at him to take his shoes off, but he doesn't, so I gotta chase after him again a _third_ time."

"That's not your fault, Danny," Chin said, "Lots of kids get overexcited with stuff like that. I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

"No," Danny answered, putting a hand on Chin's shoulder, "No, Chin, you don't understand. It _was_ that bad. We got _banned from that McDonalds_. I have a _lifetime ban_. I can't even take Gracie there."

Chin raised an eyebrow, "Ok, how'd he manage that one?"

"Once I got him to take his shoes off, he got in trouble for running, no big deal, but then he shoved one of the other two kids in there 'cause he got in a hurry, and _then_ he climbed up the _outside_ of the stupid thing even though the employees were telling him not to, and when he comes down, he apologizes and says he didn't hear and he won't do it again, and I, of course, do not believe him, but everyone else seems to, and it's still a little early to head over here, so I figure, hey, give it a chance, let him tire himself out, it'll be fine. They're watching him too, now, and the next bonehead thing he does I'll just take him back out and apologize. It's fine.  I can't take him to the office this wired anyway."

"Only, the next thing anybody knows he's climbing up the mesh around the ball pit, like that's a different thing than what we already told him not to do, and I'm yelling at him to stop, but he just gives me this _grin_ and dives in from the very top, and there's this big crunching noise when he lands, and we think he broke something, but it turns out what he broke was the _only other kid still in the thing_ , who he landed on."

Chin nodded, but Danny held a hand up, "No, no, Chin, that's not it yet, ok, he _still wasn't done_ , because that was just getting us kicked _out_ of the McDonalds, that wasn't a lifetime ban, yet, and Steve's gotta be Steve, you know, so we're getting kicked out, and he's trying to put his shoes back on, and I keep saying 'Steve, honey, let me do that for you, you know how long it takes you,' because this kid, _this kid_ remembers how to lace and tie his shoes, and he _insists_ that he can do it, but he cannot, Chin, he has the fine motor control of a five-year-old and these are _combat boots_ , and we spent 20 minutes at the apartment while he wrestled with them the first time, but he won't let me help, he keeps insisting he can do it."

"And meanwhile, the employees are looming over us telling us we gotta leave and the other kid's mother is screaming at everybody and the kid is fine, ok, he's fine, he's a little banged up, but he's gonna be fine, and Steve doesn't care about any of that, because he's in his own little world of being 5 and trying to tie his shoes, and so I take my eyes off him for a second to try to calm everybody down, and the second I'm not looking, Steve _finally_ gets frustrated with his shoe and just _chucks it_ without looking at what he's doing and it hits the manager in the face, and I just have to scoop him up and run and - are you _laughing_?"

As soon as Danny asked the question, Chin went from barely-contained shaking to full-scale laughter, laughing so hard that Danny had to steady him by the shoulders. "I'm- I'm sorry man," Chin gasped, "I'm sorry, it's not funny, it's just-"

"It's just _what_?"

Chin shook his head, still laughing.

By the time Kono walked in, her cousin was mostly in control of himself again, standing on his feet unsupported and drying his eyes. "I'm sorry, Danny," he said again.

"What was so funny?" Kono asked.

Danny looked her in the eye, feeling suddenly and desperately hollow. There was no way she was gonna understand his pain. Not with Chin still barely containing chuckles. He breathed in. He breathed out. "Steve got us banned from the McDonalds near my apartment. Maybe from all McDonaldses. I don't know. I don't want to talk about it."  Kono raised an eyebrow, and her eyes were already sparkling like she could laugh at any moment, and he couldn't handle that right now.

He strode off toward his office, "Come on, Steve. Let's go put your shoes on in my office."

Behind them, he heard Chin whispering, and then Kono started laughing, too.

 

*****

 

By 3:00 that afternoon, no one was laughing.

"Steve! Steve! Where are you!"

Kamekona was behind Danny, still talking to Chin and Kono. "I don't know what happened. I walked over to talk to _one_ customer, and when I turned around again, he was gone."

"Steve!" Danny was breaking out in a cold sweat all over. He tried to convince himself it was normal, everyday, running-around-in-Hawaii sweat, but it wasn't. He was freezing. He felt like it was 20 degrees out.  "Steve!"

When Steve didn't appear, Danny kept running, heading straight for the more populated area of beach. "Steve!" He couldn't imagine where the boy would have gone. Maybe he'd found some other kid to play with. Maybe he was trying to go swimming or surfing. Maybe he'd run into the road and gotten kidnapped. Maybe anything. "Steve!"

Once he hit the first cluster of people, he started shouting to them instead, "Hey! Hey! Has anybody seen a little boy, 5 years old, brown hair, blue eyes, wearing cargo pants?" People looked confused. "Little boy! Cargo pants! Have you seen him?"

"No, man," one of the beachgoers answered, "But I haven't been looking. What's his name?"

"Steve! Steve, his name's Steve," Danny answered, breathless, "Steve! Where are you?" 

The people around him started shouting too, and he just had to hope it would help. He had to keep looking. He could try the next clump of people. Or he could go the other way. He didn't know.

Kono grabbed him by the elbow, spinning him around. "Danny! We've gotta be smart about this, ok?"

"What?" His head was reeling, like it had been since they got the phone call, and he wasn't sure it was gonna stop again until he had eyes on Steve.

"We've gotta be strategic. We're gonna find him. But we need you to go the other way." Kono said gently, "Let me coordinate the beach search. I've done 'em before. Chin's checking the roads on his bike. You've gotta go the other way up the beach. If he's trying to get away from other people, you'll know where he'd go better than any of us. Ok?"

It took Danny a minute to process that. "Where's Kamekona?"

"He's gonna stay put and call us if Steve comes back on his own. Don't yell at him, Danny. We don't have time."

He nodded. "Time. We don't have time. I'm looking the other way, so you can look here."

"Yes, Danny. Go!" Kono gave him a light shove, enough to get him moving, and he was glad she had. He started running again, in the opposite direction, as the sounds of other people calling for Steve intensified behind him.

He kept shouting, even though he knew he'd called for Steve here before. He shouted as he ran past the shrimp truck, trying not to be angry. He shouted as he ran off along the quieter stretch of beach, until he got to a private, fenced-off area and stopped for a moment.

"Steve!" he shouted again, "Steve!"

He'd made it to the end of the beach. He should stop. He should turn around. Steve must have gone the other way. Steve - no. He suddenly got a flash of Steve climbing up the side of the ball pit this morning. Steve could have gone over the fence. Would have gone over the fence, if he'd felt like it. And if he had, then he was on a private beach, alone, with no lifeguard to watch out for him and... and... Danny reached out for the fence just to steady himself.

Two breaths later, he was climbing, and screw being reasonable, this was Steve McGarrett they were talking about, he had to get over this fence and he had to do it _now_.

At the top of the fence, he stopped for a moment to look out over the beach and that was when he saw Steve, dragging something into the water. He was already in up to his waist, and was that - _no_.

Without stopping to think about it, Danny leapt off of the fence, rolling as he hit the sand to lessen the impact. His knee twinged, but he wasn't sure if it was from kneeling on glass this morning or if it was the old injury acting up again. It didn't matter. "Steve! Steven J. McGarrett! Stop right there!"

Steve looked up, eyes wide, like he hadn't realized Danny was there until right this minute, and stopped dead in his tracks.  Danny kept running.

He wasn't close enough to be completely sure, but he was reasonably certain that the mermaid behind the boy was getting closer, so he pushed himself to run faster, pulling out his gun as he splashed into the ocean.

"Steve! Get behind me!" 

"Danny?"

"Now!"

Steve was moving more slowly in the water than he was, working harder to make up for the way the ocean pushed and pulled at him, and Danny forced himself forward even faster, desperate to get between Steve and the mermaid. 

The mermaid herself raised an eyebrow at him, though when he finally reached them and could properly aim his gun at her, the raised eyebrow became a tooth-baring hiss. "Get back. Get away from him," he ordered.

"But Danno, mermaids are-"

"Mermaids are _dangerous_ , Steve!"  He gestured out to sea with his gun, not taking his eyes off the green-skinned woman in front of him.  "Get out of here," he ordered her.

For a moment, he wasn't sure what the mermaid was going to do. He wasn't sure _she_ knew what she was going to do.

"I was bringing her a present," Steve said quietly behind him. He couldn't make out Steve's tone of voice, not without turning around to look at his face, and he couldn't do that without taking his eyes off the mermaid.

"Give it here, Steve," he said, reaching behind him to take the present, whatever it was.

"It's big," Steve said. Danny spared a look, quickly, then turned his eyes back toward the mermaid. It _was_ big. It was an entire fairly large piece of driftwood, and he had no idea why Steve would think she would want it.

"Ok, give me the end. Give me the end, and I'll sweep it in front of me, and then we're gonna go backwards toward the shore, ok Steve? Real slowly. We're just gonna back up."

They did, but before they made it back to shore, the mermaid grabbed the piece of driftwood and took off for deeper waters.  Danny sighed in relief.

The minute they hit the shore, Danny hit his knees again, pulling Steve into an enormous hug he thought he might never let go of.

"Danno?" Steve's voice, tentative and scared, snapped Danny back out of it.

He released the hug, pulling back to look at the boy, with one hand on each of Steve's upper arms. "What were you thinking?" he demanded.

"I thought - Mermaids are magic," Steve answered, a crease forming between his eyebrows as he explained, "An' I thought maybe they could fix me so I could be big again and help you. They like music so I found a big piece of wood and I cut it to be like a piano so they could practice in case they ever found a real piano in a shipwreck or something."

Danny wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, so he pulled Steve into another hug, instead. "Steve. Steve. Dam- _dangit_ , Steve, you can't just go off and do these things, ok? _Dang_."

"Am I in trouble?" Steve whispered, like he was almost scared to ask.  And of course, of  _course_ whatever part of his adult self had been involved in this plan was long gone.

"I don't know yet, Steve. I don't know." He let go, pushing back to look at Steve again. "Do you have any _idea_ how scared we were, Steve? We thought we lost you. _I_ thought I had lost you. You can't _do_ that, Steve."

Steve wouldn't meet his eyes, looking down at his bare feet in the sand instead.

Danny looked at Steve for another long moment, pulled him into one more quick hug, then let go of the boy entirely, leaning back to sit on his heels and look at Steve. "Ok," he explained, finally feeling calm enough to pretend to be calm. "I'm gonna call the others, and then we're gonna find your shoes, and we're gonna get out of here, and we're gonna decide how much trouble you're in. Ok?"

Steve nodded, but he didn't look ok. He was biting his lip, like he was trying not to say something. Danny touched his chin gently to tip it up so he could look Steve in the eye.  Steve met his eyes for a moment, then looked away again. "Am I gonna get a spanking?"

Danny closed his eyes for a moment, steadying himself. Right. They'd been kids at the same time, to parents of the same generation. Of course that's what Steve expected. Of course. He shouldn't be surprised.  He'd just never, ever expected to be asked that.  Not since the day he saw Gracie's sonogram and decided he was never gonna be like that with her.  He shook his head, opening his eyes. "No, Steve. You're not. Not from me. Ok? No. I'm not gonna let you get hurt. Ok?"

Steve nodded, visibly more relaxed now. Danny reached out and held Steve's hand for just a moment, looking at him. Then he let go and pulled back and got up, as fast as he could on a bum knee that was definitely not happy with him right now. "Now," he asked brusquely, "Where are your shoes, Baby Seal?"

Steve wiggled under the new nickname as he ran off to get his shoes. Danny wasn't sure where it had come from, but he liked it, so he thought he was probably gonna use it again, even if Steve wasn't crazy about it. "They're over here with the knife I got from Kamekona."

"With the - what?" Danny paused, squeezing his eyes shut.

"I borrowed a knife from the shrimp truck so I could cut the piano keys."

Danny took a deep breath to center himself, reminding himself that however badly this could have gone, it hadn't. "We're gonna have to talk about the knife, too," he said, keeping his voice carefully calm, "Just so you know."

When Danny opened his eyes again, Steve looked away, refusing to meet them.

Danny sighed, picking the knife up carefully and, for the lack of a better plan, tucking it between his belt and his pants. "Ok, grab your shoes, and we'll climb back over the fence."

"You climbed over the fence?"

"Yeah, kid, so did you."

"No, I didn't! I went under!"

"Of course you did.  You know what, Steve?  You just show me how you got here, and when we get back to 5-0 and figure out how much trouble you're in, we're gonna have a nice long chat about places you can and cannot go for the remainder of your time as a magical shrunken 5-year-old, ok? Ok."

He didn't wait for an answer, but that was alright, because he didn't get one. Steve was already running forward to slip back under the fence. Danny realized suddenly that he hadn't called the others yet, but since he wasn't completely sure Steve would stop if he called him, he figured the phone call could wait until he and Steve were both on the right side of the fence, when he didn't have to let the boy out of his sight again.

Danny climbed down the other side of the fence much more carefully than he had last time, but it was still pretty clear, as soon as he was back on the ground again, that it had all been too much for his knee. "Steve, come help me. I think my knee's going."

Steve's eyes widened and he scrambled over to hold Danny's hand, "It's ok, Danno, I'll help you. You can lean on my shoulder."

"No, I can't.  You are tiny.  I would crush you if you tried to carry me. You're just gonna steady me and give me something to hold onto while I hobble."

It took longer than it should have to get back to the shrimp truck, almost long enough that Danny felt bad for cutting off his phone call to Kono with 'gotta call Chin' and his phone call to Chin with 'gotta call Kono' so that he didn't have to give them any details. Eventually, though, they made it to the main part of the beach, and as soon as they were in sight, Kono ran over to hug Steve and help Danny. Steve kept trying to help him, too, partially so that he didn't have to look Kono in the eye while she told him off for running away.

Danny was pretty sure they looked ridiculous as they crossed the last few feet to the truck and took seats at the bench nearest the window. He made up for it by trying to be as cool as possible as he handed Kamekona's knife back to him. "Here. I took this off a Navy SEAL. Too bad he was _five at the time_."

"Ohh man, my bad, brotha. Let me get you some garlic shrimp."

"Yeah, that's not gonna make me feel better about you losing a kid and a knife at the same time."

"Can't hear you over the shrimp sizzling - hope that wasn't important!"

"Yeah, sure."

Kono was laughing, but something in her eyes was still tense, and she had what looked like a death grip on Steve's shoulder, which only tightened when he tried to wiggle loose. Served him right.

The shrimp and Chin arrived at the same time, Chin's motorcycle roaring up to them like he'd hardly slowed down since he left. "Where was he?"

"Up the beach," Danny told him, "On that private beach behind those buildings over there, on the other side of the fence."

"Why?" asked Chin.

"Steve?" Danny prompted.

Steve shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I was trying to find a mermaid to turn me back to a grownup, so I could help with the investigation. They're magic."

"No, Steven," Danny corrected, annoyed all over again now that he was sitting down and his knee still hurt, "You were not _trying_ to find a mermaid.  You  _found_ a mermaid. You _found_ a mermaid, and I had to hold a gun on her and drag you out of the ocean before she could haul you away to sea."

"What kind of mermaid?" Kamekona asked.

"What kind o- _excuse me_?" Danny spluttered, "What _kind_ of mermaid? The mermaidy kind! Green skin! Sharp teeth! Mermaid!"

"Ok, but _green_ green, or mostly-a-white-lady green?" Kono asked.

"No, no, we are not gonna-"

" _Green_ green," Steve answered confidently, interrupting Danny.

"He was probably fine, then," Chin said soothingly.

"He was - no! No, he was _not_ fine! He was chasing mermaids!"

"I know, Danny, but it wasn't actually a dangerous one," Chin said.

"' _It wasn't actually a dangerous one_ ,'" Danny mimicked, "You know what? I don't want to hear about it. He's a little boy. A little _boy_. If he was a little girl, then shoot, sure, whatever, maybe _this_ one wasn't a dangerous one, but little boys grow up into men, and you know how mermaids feel about _men_!"

"You're thinking of Sirens, I think."

"No, Kamekona, I am not. I am thinking of _mermaids_. The kind that lure sailors into the deep and _drown_ them. Not the kind who sit on rocks and sing and sink ships. Different things."

"That's a very specific subset of mermaids, though," Kono said absently. "Those ones mostly live in colder climates."

Steve giggled, which was actually perfect timing for once, because it drew everyone's attention back to him and away from their perpetual and irritating crusade to get Danny to accept all the magical and mythical stuff Hawaiians didn't have the good sense to keep buttoned up and locked down, like they did in New Jersey.

"Steve," Chin said seriously, "This isn't funny. You might not have been in danger this time, but if you run off again, you could be. And even if this mermaid was ok, the ocean is dangerous. You can't just run off like that!"

"I just wanted to help," Steve said, after darting a quick look at Danny.

"I know, but because you disappeared, we lost 2 hours worth of chasing down our real leads, because we had to go look at you."

Steve's brows furrowed, "But I was just-"

"You were just _nothing_ , Steve," Chin said seriously, "You can't run off like that. You're our responsibility until you're big again, and we have to look after you. We can't chase you down and catch our suspect at the same time. You have to be more responsible. More grown up."

Steve set his jaw, and for a moment, Danny almost saw the sailor he was going to be. "I understand, Mr. Kelly," he answered.

Danny's eyebrow shot up. "Mr. Kelly? You call me 'Danno' and you call him 'Mr. Kelly'?"

Chin grinned, patting Danny's shoulder, "What can I say? Some people are natural authority figures."

"Oh, yeah, sure."

"Should I call you Mr. Williams?"

"What? No. No, you should not. That is awful, Steven. That is like my _dad_. Jeepers, Steve, it was a _joke_."

"Oh. Ok, Danno."

Danny groaned.  "Dann _y._ Dann _y_. I don't _like_ you enough right now for you to call me Danno. Call me Danno when you _haven't_ been stealing knives and climbing fences and getting me kicked out of McDonaldses. Don't think I've forgotten about that."

Steve pouted, and Danny almost relented, but then the boy's face slid into a devilish grin a second before he could take it back. "Ok, Danno. I'll remember."

Danny groaned, the others (traitorously) laughed, and that was that.

 

*****

 

There was no way Danny was going to be of any use in chasing their leads until his knee got some serious rest, so the others went back to what was left of what they'd been doing before, and Danny took Steve home to his apartment, where they cleaned up the rest of the broken dishes from the morning and stacked the ones that hadn't broken neatly on the counter.

Then he sunk onto the couch and called Steve over before the boy could get himself into any more trouble. "Ok," he said, "Steve. I know you want to get out there and do stuff. I get that. I _do_. But right now, you're 5, and my knee hurts, and we're gonna sit here quietly and watch a movie, ok? That's what we're gonna do. Go pick a movie. Grace's pile is over there."

Steve stood in front of the movie cabinet, making faces. "These look like _girly_ movies."  Danny couldn't for the life of him figure out which Steve was talking, but he was too tired to care much, right now.

"Yeah. Grace is a girl." Steve looked over at him mournfully, and Danny rolled his eyes. "Keep looking, Steve, they're not that bad."

Steve made a pensive face, looked them over again, and grabbed one of the boxes. "What's _Cars_?  That doesn't sound so bad." 

"You've never seen - what am I saying, of course you've never seen _Cars_. You were probably tearing up the jungle somewhere when _Cars_ came out. No wonder you're always so weird with Grace. Pop it in the DVD player, my friend, you are in for a treat."

Steve did, then came over to the couch and snuggled up with Danny without asking first, like it was the obvious way to sit. Danny almost made a joke about not liking him that much again yet, but he couldn't quite bring himself to say it. Instead, he smoothed Steve's hair down, double checking that the kid was ok.

The DVD went to direct play, but before he could skip the previews, Steve's stomach started growling audibly, and Danny had to pause to make him some dinner.

By the end of the movie, Steve had put away an unnatural number of chicken nuggets, resolutely returned to snuggle with Danny on the couch after each microwave batch, and fallen asleep against Danny's shoulder. Danny knew he shouldn't carry the boy with his knee in the state it was in, but he'd rested it a little, and it felt a little bit better, and he did it anyway. If Steve was gonna pop out of bed early again tomorrow, he might as well do it after a night in a comfortable bed, instead of on the couch where he might wake up even earlier.

Steve woke up just enough to flash his baby blues at Danny as he was picked up, but when Danny whispered, "Go back to sleep, Cuddlebug," he did it.  Danny thought he might like Steve enough to let him call him Danno again.

 

*****

 

By the time they left Steve with Max to go get their suspect, two days later, Danny and the rest of the 5-0 team had plenty of advice to leave with their babysitter.

"Steve has two settings and two settings only - running, and sleeping. If he's not asleep, he is doing something, and if he _is_ asleep, you have to make sure he stays that way, because as soon as he's up, he'll be running again," Danny said solemnly.

"Don't let him take his shoes off," Kono instructed, "You'll want to be able to hear him moving around, and he's too quiet in his socks."

"We took down most of the movable things he can climb, but sometimes if he gets too bored, he'll climb the actual walls. Look out for that." Chin finished.

"I thought you said he remembered things from being an adult." Max said, confused.

"Oh, he does," Chin answered, "Watch out for that, too. He's five. He has no impulse control. He will use what he knows to manipulate you."

"He also thinks he's still a Navy SEAL," Danny added, "So he'll do dangerous things because he remembers being able to do them, but his body doesn't actually have those skills. He's athletic, so sometimes he does, but he's five, so sometimes he doesn't." 

"He still eats like he needs to fuel SEAL training, though," Kono commented, "So make sure he's eating, because if you don't feed him, he'll find things to eat in people's desks and such, and that will be too much sugar."

" _Absolutely_ no sugar," Danny added, "And this should go without saying, but no caffeine either. He thinks he likes coffee. He does not, but even if he did, he can't have any."

"And I know you're not the most athletic, especially since you got shot, but if you can safely take him outside where he can run around without running away, that's good, too," Chin said, "Wear him out. If you can play a little catch for a couple of hours, he's a bright little ray of sunshine. It's just when he's bored that he's trouble." 

"No swimming, though," Kono clarified, "That makes the SEAL problem the worst."

"Guys, I've got this." Max said, "Now it just sounds like you're worrying about whether I can handle it. I am sure that I can."

"Call us if you need anything," Danny said, "I mean it."

Max nodded, but Danny wasn't sure he trusted that.

He left anyway. They needed to get this woman, because she'd done this to Steve, and because inflicting this new Steve on the rest of them was practically a crime in itself.  The last four days had been constant swings between wildness and sweetness, chaos and cuddling, and Danny wasn't sure how much longer he could take it.

 

*****

 

When they returned with the witch in tow, they walked up to the office to see Steve perched on top of the conference table, Danny's cane in hand, fighting heroically against Max, who was leaning on one of the chairs and brandishing his own cane like a sword to block him. Steve was shrieking with glee, and Danny couldn't help smiling.

Chin pushed the door open, because Danny still had his hands full with the suspect. Steve spun around at the sound of the door opening, and when he saw who it was, he caught some serious air leaping off the table, only to land in a crouch a few feet away and run up to them, Danny's cane discarded at his landing spot. "You caught the bad lady!"

Max was significantly slower, walking toward them at his usual speed. "I thought you took prisoners to HPD?"

"We do," Danny explained, "But we thought Steve should see this one, since he's the one who got caught in her explosion. Come wait downstairs with us while we call HPD to come get her."

Steve ran ahead of them, but this time Danny wasn't worried. Without specific work to try to do, Steve wasn't as likely to run completely away, and even if he did, they'd gotten better at catching him. Kono was especially fast at baby SEAL catching. 

Downstairs, Steve stood close enough for Danny to wrap his arms around the boy from behind, and they all watched Max ask the witch question after question about Steve's condition. She was mostly uncooperative, like she'd been when the rest of them tried to get her to talk, and when she did try to cooperate, what she said was unhelpful. It was almost a relief when HPD came to take her away.

Before they did, though, Steve pushed away from Danny's side and stepped forward to look the witch in the eye. He narrowed his eyes, glaring into her face for a moment, then relaxed his face again as he turned toward Danny. "Book her, Danno!"

"Already done."

Steve grinned brilliantly, and came back over for a hug.

 

*****

 

For the rest of the day, they celebrated their victory, tumbling around on the grass together with Chin's football, charging up and down the stairs in a series of fake swordfights, and generally tuckering Steve out. After all, there was still no way to know when he would turn back, and since neither their own questioning nor Max's had turned anything up, they were just going to have to wait.

By 3:30, Steve was rubbing his eyes like it was naptime, and since all that was left was paperwork, and that would keep for a few more days, given that he could argue this wasn't officially wrapped up until Steve was better, it was naptime for Danny, too.

He sank onto the couch in his office, where Steve had followed him like the only thing he could still think of to do was trail along after Danno, but even with that, Danny couldn't actually lay down until he knew Steve was really going to sleep. He'd made that mistake already. "Come here, Cuddlebug," Danny said, holding his arms out.

Steve came over and crawled onto the couch with him, burrowing his face into Danny's neck for a minute before rearranging himself to sit a little more comfortably on Danny's lap. He was genuinely sleepy, then. He was only this snuggly when he was tired. Or scared. Or he wanted something. But there was nothing to be afraid of, and he didn't have that gleam in his eye that meant he was trying to play them.

"You tired?" Danny asked, wrapping his arms around Steve and rocking him back and forth, just a little.

"Uh-huh" Steve said with a nod, followed almost immediately by the biggest yawn Danny had ever seen on such a little face. 

"Yeah, I thought so. Me too."

They rocked back and forth for a little bit longer.

"I guess I could take a nap," Steve offered.

"I think that might be a good idea," Danny answered, letting go of Steve again. "I'm gonna lay down right here on this couch."

Steve got up to let Danny lay all the way down.

"Where are you gonna nap?" Danny asked Steve, as the boy loomed over him.

Steve clambered onto the couch, halfway on top of Danny, and answered, "I'm gonna nap with you!"

As he settled down onto the couch, mostly sprawled across Danny's chest, Steve elbowed Danny in the sternum and kneed him in the stomach. Danny had been hit in worse places by the wayward limbs of sleepy children, and at least Steve was being careful with his still-booted feet, so he let Steve snuggle up with him anyway, wrapping his arms around the boy once he was settled in with his head on Danny's shoulder.

Danny was almost but not quite asleep when his door opened quietly and Kono whispered softly to Chin that she had to get pictures of this one. He kept his eyes closed, and pretended not to know she was there. It was only fair after he'd taken those pictures of her and Steve at the beach. 

He drifted off to sleep,

 

*****

 

A sudden weight on his chest threatened to crush him, and he woke up certain that he was dying. The weight had driven the breath out of his lungs, and he opened his eyes and gasped to refill them at the same moment.

He wasn't sure if it was the magic or the gasp that woke Steve up, but the full pressure of the full weight of a full-sized Navy SEAL coming down on his chest as Steve tried to sit up with one hand drove all the breath out of his lungs again, so that all he could do was slap at the man's suddenly enormous arm and hope it stopped soon.

"Shit! Danny!" Steve rolled off of him, landing on the floor next to the couch with a loud _crash_ that Danny could swear shook the floor. Then he was scrambling up again, while Danny was still trying to catch his breath.

Kono and Chin burst in through the door.

"Oh!" Chin said, "You're back!"

" _That_ , I wish I'd had pictures of," Kono joked, looking relieved.

"Steve-" Danny grunted, finally catching his breath enough to make words happen.

"What? Are you ok? I'm sorry! I wouldn't have been on top of you like that if I'd thought I was gonna-" 

Danny shook his head and Steve stopped rambling, "No - Steve -" he waved his hand dramatically, then stilled. "You shouldn't say bad words."

Steve laughed, a startled bark of laughter that wasn't much like the way he'd laughed as a kid, wild and easy, and for a moment, Danny felt inexplicably sad. He forced himself not to dwell on it, waving his hand at Steve again instead, "Help me up, you big idiot."

"Oh, _I'm_ the big idiot," Steve said, hauling Danny not just to the sitting position he'd been going for, but all the way to his feet, "You don't even know how to tell good mermaids from bad mermaids."  He said it with only half of his usual intensity, like he was still trying to make sense of the memory.

"They're not - you know what, you don't get to complain about that, Mr. Spent-the-last-4-days-unable-to-tie-his-own-shoes."

"I could tie 'em!"  He sounded more confident this time.

"If we gave you 20 minutes and let you stick your tongue out so you could concentrate!"

"I still _could_!" Steve's mind was obviously only half on the argument, at best, but this time he was preoccupied by something else. He was checking Danny up and down, trying to make sure he hadn't broken him, and he was trying to be subtle about it.

Danny shoved him in the chest.  "I'm fine, Steve. Fine. Except for what you did to my knee and my hand and my kitchen, which, by the way, you are coming over this weekend to fix."

Caught out, Steve's face slid into a familiar grin that meant he had nothing to lose, for the moment, and he pulled Danny into a huge bear hug. "Glad you're ok, Danno."

And because Danny couldn't let Steve have the last word, he hugged him back, and answered, "Glad you're ok, too, Cuddlebug."

Steve nuzzled his face into Danny's shoulder and for a moment, Danny felt everything he'd assumed about which Steve was a grownup and which wasn't spinning off its axis.  Then, Steve said, "I can think of at least five ways to kill you with the things in this office," and the feeling was gone.

Danny shoved affectionately at the side of Steve's head, trying passively to push him off.  "Shut up."

Steve held the hug for just a little bit longer than necessary, and Danny shoulder checked him after he let go, and things gradually started to feel normal again.

**Author's Note:**

> I've only barely started Season 3, so I don't really know Steve's mom or Catherine well enough to include them yet. Also, I didn't want to, because Danny's Dad Powers were too much fun to play with. Anyway, please don't spoil anything for me in the comments! I'd really appreciate it!


End file.
